


A Dead Robin's Nightmares

by AlmondRose



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, Crying, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not really though, Screaming, Some minor violence, doesn't this sound cheerful?, fear toxin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 17:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7232230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondRose/pseuds/AlmondRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Times the dead Robins were fear toxined by Scarecrow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dead Robin's Nightmares

Stephanie is in the musty closet again. That dark, confining closet that was horrible when she was small. Now that she’s bigger she can barely breathe. The darkness is compressing, confining, and squeezing. The closet is getting smaller and smaller, squeezing her in on herself, until she is jerked out unpleasantly. Her father is holding her up by the arm. Her feet are dangling in the air. She can’t reach the ground. That sickening shade of orange is all she can see.

 

“Worthless,” her father spits. “Can’t do anything right. Can’t help your mother, can’t help yourself.” Steph cries out and her father becomes Tim, and he throws her to the ground, looking at her with utmost revolution. 

 

“Get out of here,” Tim says, coldly. “We don’t need you.” Suddenly Tim is Dick, and Dick spits, “Better off without you.” She can hear Damian, hissing, “Not helpful, who needs her, we’re better, keep her away,” and Bruce saying, “Not a real Robin,” then she is being manhandled backwards, and Cass hisses in her ear, “Spoiler wasn’t even a real vigilante. Why should Stephanie Brown be real, either?” Cass releases Steph and she falls, down, down down. 

 

“I  _ WAS _ REAL!” she yells over the wind whistling past her ears. “I WASN’T FAKE!”

 

“You aren’t even a good Batgirl,” Barbara says, standing-- _ standing-- _ over the side of the edge. “I’m a much better Batgirl. Smarter, quicker, better.”

 

“NO!” Steph yells, landing with a thud. “NO!” She’s in pain, too much pain, but she manages to stand up and see the crumpled bodies of her mom, Dick, Tim, Jason, Cass, Damian, Kara, Barbara, and Alfred all laying around her feet. Bruce stands at the other end of the bodies. 

 

“Your fault,” he says. “I told you should have stopped when you had the chance.” Steph screams and falls to her knees, sobbing. She can hear their voices, pressing around her, and her father’s loudest of all, and then there’s Black Mask, repeating what he said that night, and then Batman’s voice cuts through it all. 

 

“Batgirl,” he says. “Batgirl. Snap out of it.” 

 

“NO!” Steph yells, covering her ears. 

 

“Batgirl, it’s not real,” Batman continues, his growl sounding more gentle than usual. “Batgirl. Wake up.” It sounds like he’s right in front of her, and Steph looks up from her knees, and through her tears she can sort of see Batman, kneeling in front of her. He looks concerned. She blinks, and it's the pile of bodies again.

 

“ _ DON’T _ TEASE ME!” Steph yells.

 

“I’m not, I promise,” Batman says. Steph surges forward, crashing into Batman’s kevlar-covered body. His arms go around her--hesitantly--and she cries into the Batsymbol on his chest. “It was Scarecrow,” Batman says quietly. “He’s headed to Arkham now. Whatever you saw…” He trails off and Steph knows that he knows at least some of it. “Whatever you saw was fake. It was fear toxin. You’re okay.” Steph nods and hiccups, trying to get herself under control. Bruce continues to hold her. When she’s stopped, more or less, she stumbles backwards to figure out where she is. She’s on a roof, and she remembers the fight with Scarecrow, which she had been doing alone. She supposes Batman came to rescue her. Batgirl sniffs into her sleeve. 

 

“I am Batgirl,” she whispers, just to reassure herself. Batman puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes it quickly before withdrawing. He already gave her a hug thing. Batgirl supposes she’s used up all her prolonged contact with the Bat for the next decade or so.

 

“Yes,” Batman says simply. Batgirl knows his emotional constipation, and she knows Bruce has never been too fond of her, but she also knows that that one syllable warms her.

\-------

Jason knows it’s fear toxin. He knows it is. But that doesn’t mean that the sight of his mom, dead on the floor, doesn’t still disturb him. He runs to her side, pleading for her to wake up, and she rolls over, and is his own small body, clad in the Robin costume, bloody and beaten. Jason stumbles backwards and trips over something. A crowbar. He kicks it as far away from himself as he can, and it bounces back, like a Batarang. Batman himself looms from the shadows, glaring at Jason. He can’t help but whimper.

 

“Get out,” Batman growls, and Jason gets up and starts to run, but the world melts around him and he’s in a warehouse, and he can hear--hear the  _ laughter,  _ and he trips over that damned crowbar again, and he falls, and the Joker is looming over him, and Harley’s next to him, and she has hyena’s, and he’s sure they’re going to tear him apart, and he can feel the crowbar hitting him, he remembers, and the Joker keeps laughing, and laughing, and it swallows Harley’s laughter, it swallows the hyena’s laughter, it swallows everything until all Jason can hear is the laughter, ringing in his ears, and he curls in on himself, and he know’s it's fear toxin, but all he can hear is the laugh, and when he curls up he can feel the crowbar, and hear the laugh, and he closes his eyes and he can see the smile, burned in his eyelids, and he feels hot tears run down his face, and the Joker’s still  _ laughing-- _

 

“Jay!” Jason curls up tighter. “Jay! Little Wing! Nobody’s--nobody’s hurting you.” Jason lifts his head shakily, and he sees Dick, peering at him, concerned. Dick is wearing the Nightwing suit, but without the mask. Jason shoves away Dick’s hands, which were moving like he might hug him, and crawls away, breathing heavily. 

 

“Y-you okay?” Dick asks. Jason can still hear the echoes of the laughter, ringing in his ears. He knows that he was curled up on the ground a second ago, crying and flinching like he was being hit. Dick’s pale face confirms that he knows exactly what Jason was seeing and feeling. Jason wipes his eyes angrily. 

 

“Never better, Dickiebird,” he says, standing up shakily. Dick’s there in a flash, holding onto his arms to steady him. 

 

“Do you need me to take you home?” Dick asks. Jason shakes his head. 

 

“I’ll make my own way there.”

 

“You know that needing help isn’t a weakness, right?” Dick says. “It’s okay if you’re disoriented or whatever.”

 

“I’m fine,” Jason snaps over the sound of the Joker, still laughing in his ears. He scoops up his discarded helmet on the ground and puts it on. “You don’t need to be everyone’s big brother.”

 

“Except I am,” Dick says, crossing his arms. 

 

“Whatever,” Red Hood says, and he leaves the alley they are standing in. 

 

Later that night, Jason sees a shadow from his window. He turns around in bed just quick enough to see Nightwing flipping away. 

\---

“Murderer,” Brown spits. Damian stares up at her. She seems distorted. And terrible. “All you do is kill,” she hissed. “Freak.”

 

“Why would anyone want you?” Grayson scoffs. “A tiny assassin?”

 

“I was a much better Robin,” Drake’s voice says.. “You’ll never be as good as me.”

 

“No,” Damian says. “No. I’m--I’m…”

 

“What? You’re what?” Grayson asks mockingly. He and Brown are all in Damian’s vision, all he can see, their terrible, distorted faces. Damian turns away, blinking back tears, but his father stands there, blocking his path. 

 

“You’re nothing,” Father says. “What use have I for a murderer? A killer?”

 

“Hopeless case,” Brown says, smiling terribly. 

 

“You can’t even kill properly!” Mother’s voice rings out. Damian turns, horrified. His clone stands next to her. “He can kill. He even killed you.” Damian feels a sword go through him, then again, then again, and he yells out. He hears  Grayson and Brown laughing. He falls to the ground. When he looks up again, Grayson and Brown have swords running through them. Damian gasps, and reaches for them, but he is sworded and bleeding out, and they fall and die before he can do anything about it. 

 

“Urg,” Mother scoffs. Father grunts in reply, and Damian turns to face them, but a swarm of bats flys in his face, biting and scratching, and he screams again. Then he hears his father say, “If you had stopped killing this wouldn’t have happened,” and Damian sees Father, laying next to Brown and Grayson’s bodies. Father is nearly dead as well. Damian reaches for him, but then--”If you had just followed my orders, this wouldn’t have happened.” He turns, and there is Mother, lying there too, and he failed to save either of them, and Grayson and Brown, and they are all dying, because of him, and he yells in Arab, and there is still a sword in his stomach, and someone slaps him across the face. 

 

“Robin,” Drake’s voice says. “Wake up.”

 

“I  _ am  _ awake,” Damian hisses, and the sword goes through him again, and he is standing on a hill, next to Thomas and Martha’s graves, next to Todd’s grave, and he is looking at four graves, for Grayson, Brown, Mother, and Father. Then everything goes black, and Damian is alone in an endless void, and he yells out for Grayson.

 

“I am  _ helping _ you, genius,” Drake’s voice says, then he is slapped again and Damian sits up straight. He turns to see Drake, sitting back on his heels. 

 

“What happened?” Robin asks, getting control of his voice and breathing.

 

“Fear toxin,” Red Robin says, matter-of-factly. “I saved your butt.”

 

“Well, as I was incapacitated, I suppose I should thank you,” Robin says, standing shakily to his feet. Red Robin doesn’t offer a hand to help him. 

 

“What did you see?” Red Robin asks. Robin looks away. 

 

“Some things,” he says. He doesn’t offer any more explanation. 

 

“Whatever. You do know that everyone loses control like that, don’t you?” Red Robin asks. “You aren’t weak or whatever because you were crying.” Robin hasn’t even realized he is crying. He has been more focused on what he had seen. He wasn’t even aware he was afraid of some of those things. 

 

“Tt. I know I am not weak,” Robin says. “And I have seen footage of people under fear toxin before. You were particularly pathetic.” Red Robin frowns at him. 

 

“You know what, whatever,” he says. “Let’s go back.”

 

“Wait,” Robin says, biting his lip. “Could you...make sure everyone’s alive?” Red Robin looks at him strangely but activates his comm. 

 

“Red Robin here,” he says. “Robin and I are about to head in. Report?”

 

“All’s well,” Black Bat says.

 

“Fine here,” Nightwing says.

 

“I apprehended Penguin,” Batman says. “He was robbing a bank.”

 

“Everything’s good here,” Batgirl says cheerfully.  

 

“Okay,” Red Robin says. “We’ll be headed in.”

 

“Was Scarecrow caught?” Oracle asks, and Robin’s breath catches in his throat.

 

“Yeah,” Red Robin says with a look at Robin. 

 

“Were you hit?” Black Bat asks.

 

“I was,” Robin admits. “But I’m fine now.”

 

“Oh, kid,” Batgirl says sympathetically. 

 

“First fear toxin’s always the worst,” Nightwing says. “Hey, what do you say to a movie night?”

 

“Yeah,” Batgirl says enthusiastically. “We can watch dumb vampire movies from like, the 60s or whatever and make fun of them.”

 

“Okay,” Robin says quietly. 

 

“Great!” Batgirl and Nightwing say in unision. Robin smiles. 

 

“Did you just smile?” Red Robin asks quietly, disbelief etched on his face. Robin scowls at him. 

 

“Robin,” Batman says unexpectedly. “Tell Alfred you want the 3327 Special and he’ll make you a feel better treat.”

 

“Ooh,” Batgirl moans. “I’m jealous.” 

 

“We should really head back,” Red Robin says. 

 

“Okay,” Batgirl says, and she disconnects. NIghtwing and Batman follow suit. 

  
“We love you, Robin,” Black Bat says quietly then she, too, disconnects. Robin feels better. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure I took some liberties with how the toxin works, but OH WELL. I was originally going to do all the Robins, but I don't have a good enough grasp on Tim to do his, and I couldn't just leave Tim out, so here. Dead Robins. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and Kudos are loved! :)


End file.
